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"Weird universe"..."lurking dangers"...

Aucturn. AUCTUUUUURN. Give us mind-warping horrors on Aucturn! :D

I'll be starting this final volume sometime in the next two months (waiting on an original party member who had to take a perfectly-timed hiatus for the birth of his first child!), and want to get all my ducks in a row.

I've read and reread this volume several times, and I honestly think it's almost like a separate min-AP all its own.

There's a massive cast of NPCs. A number of complicated tasks that can be done in almost any order by the PCs. Several combats with specific floor-plans, and several other "quantum combats" that could be inserted at various points, triggered by various PC actions, but without specific maps (the Fleurasik enforcers, Tavin Arill's ambush, possible entanglements with House Rycast).

It's honestly a lot. I have the maps finished for the Jynma encounter on the train/tram, the

Is anyone else prepping this volume or already GMing it?

We finished the book! We're now on hiatus for a bit while one of the players welcomes their first child, so the party has some time to absorb the terrifying, world-upending news:

They're clones! Of Reptoid infiltrators scattered throughout the Pact Worlds!

I mocked up an actual PDF that read as a series of emails from Zaxo to Gyru for the party to actually read once they found the files. Then we "debriefed" to ensure they understand the implications, and setting the stage for the story to continue in Book 6.

Some things for other DMs to note:

1. The party may not choose to share this information with their allies immediately, so when following up afterward, the fight footage from Llaoe Arae that gets leaked is crucial to helping put the pressure on and clue in the party's new ally, Director General Lin Camulan, in the subsequent and final book.

2. Overseer Gyru was a decently tense fight due to her Greater Invisibility, but I forgot to engage some of her other defensive measures from being a Witchwarper. If you want to max out the tension, definitely brush up on all of her spells and abilities! Or, just give her a 2nd Gray operative to act as frontline fodder.

Update:

They have captured Nevintsi and most of the other Dycepskians, been ambushed and almost wiped by Grays (I prepped Dr. Kalita as a CR 6 Healer Mystic to help them out a bit), pursued the Grays into their hidden facility, are almost out of resolve points, and have taken one Gray engineer captive for telepathic interrogation.

They now know a component of their starship is in the hands of Overseer Gyru and have figured out the Grays can't phase through walls while in this facility.

I am sincerely hoping they fall for the Ooze ambush a couple rooms down...

Hello hello,

Spoilers follow!

This past session, my players reached LLAOE ARAE, a very spoiler-ific location for multiple reasons.

I had been planning for this part of the story for quite some time and was very excited.

But I neglected to properly foresee my players' possible actions.

FIRST: due to their high level of paranoia regarding the Dycepskian menace, and the very real threat that their foe Nevintsi poses to BRETHEDA, they immediately started hounding random patients and staff regarding any recent experimental treatments, who had done what, and were literally THIS close to figuring out that a random Barathu patient was in fact a Dycepskian, per the book.

SECOND: They rooted around in the janitor's closet a little more closely than I'd anticipated, and found the knocked-out Doc, woke her up, and proceeded to quickly interview her.

I had to do some seat-of-my-pants delaying tactics on both of these issues, cuz I seriously thought it was all about to devolve into one big shooty mess before Nevintsi could spring his trap properly. Players, man.

Another question...as far as I can tell, the only original of any of the PCs who is specifically identified in the AP is Erem. I'm happy to come up with others, but I'm confused about whether the other PCs are all clones of reptoid imposters, or just some of them.

OK. So, this is one of the trickiest parts for me as well. However, I definitely interpreted all of the books of this AP as instructing that indeed, every PC is a clone of a Reptoid infiltrator uncovered by the Grays.

This raised some questions for me early on: if the Grays cloned Reptoids...why didn't they get Reptoid clones?

I answered this by deciding to presume that when a Reptoid is in infiltration disguise, their DNA magically matches that of the individual they are copying. Thus, when the Grays clone them, they don't get another Reptoid, but a "locked-in" version of that Reptoid in its disguised form.

Now, getting back to your main question, not every Reptoid is a high-placed official like Erem (whose name I discarded, for my own story reasons*). Some, as the book suggests, may be in positions of subtle power, out of the public eye. Others may be seemingly powerless, but high profile, like celebrities. Some may be specifically powerful, like an industry leader. Or, again, more subtle, like a government under-secretary or senior attache or a company's department head or high-level analyst, not necessarily the CEO.

But yes, every single one of the PCs is a clone of an imposter. Which does make this AP unique in that the overall motivation to learn the truth, defeat the various conspiracies, etc., is heavily tied in to the characters' identities from the end of Book One, making a character death pretty significant. I have definitely been pulling a few punches here and there to keep my players' original characters alive precisely for that reason of continuity, and the expected emotional upheaval that will occur when they discover the truth of their identities at the end of Book 5 (just 2 or 3 sessions away, for me!).

*I decided early on to have the clones' doppelgangers have anagram names of the PCs so as to make it all the more ridiculous and trippy. I have decided that Zaxo's lab Grays for this experiment had a weird Gray sense of clinical humor, and called it "Project Anagram".

1. They are each going to play two characters, but are considering a party without any casters: Envoy, Operative, Vanguard, and either a Mechanic or Biohacker... Has anyone else run this AP (or other campaign) for a party without casters?

2. How much did your players know about “The Unseen” when you started book 1?

First of all, welcome! We number legion! Er...well, maybe a dozen of us. Ahem.

Regarding Question 1: my party lacked a proper spell caster until Book 4, where I began supporting them with an NPC technomancer who is in Book 3 but was supposed to die. I play him in a light support role, and as a useful mouthpiece for when their investigations sometimes get sidetracked.

I'm a bit more concerned that there's no tank/beater in your party. I see a Vanguard, but honestly don't have much experience with them. Also, Mechanic is definitely helpful with the many computer-related sleuthing tasks that come up more and more in later books. (Exocortex all the way though, drones are annoying.)

For Question 2: most of my party's players didnt do much reading about the setting beforehand, so I gave a brief summary of "current threats to the Pact Worlds" which included a casual mention of the Unseen. One of my players, though, made up his mind that his character is already a paranoid ex-detective who is on a mission to find a missing partner, so he was first down the rabbit hole. In short, they adapt as they go--so long as they know this is a mystery/espionage/murder type adventure.

The hardest part...is likely the wee little fact about their in-story origins. They should be suspecting foul play and weirdness from the end of book 1, and the later books should occasionally reinforce that, but the Book 5 confirmation can still turn some players' heads upside down.

My DM says that an AOO takes a single melee actionif I take my AOO then that signal attack uses up my attack action the next round.

A character in Starfinder gets a Swift, move, and a Standard during their turn in a round. They also get, once per round, a Reaction.

If you take an Attack of Opportunity vs. an opponent who provoked on their turn, you are consuming your Reaction, NOT your next turn's Standard Action.

Like, if I wanted to know more about my Congressional candidate, who in the world would go to the pub and ask people instead of going to google?

I plan on treating this section as a set of different tactics: computers (easy) to learn basics, computers (hard) to learn fringe dirt on the targets (buried by Infosphere manipulation), and diplomacy (moderate to hard) to specifically learn about these candidates' personal lives, where they hang out or live, etc. Also Culture checks to give background info on how government is set up, how society works in general, etc.

Without giving too much plot away, we're in Book 3 now and I just DMed one of the silliest sessions of tabletop I've ever experienced.

The Half-Elf Operative has been flirting with K.B., who shared her misgivings about O.P. and the Stewards. The entire group hatched an outlandish plot to gain access to O.P.'s office, involving the Shobhad feigning his arms getting stuck in the toilets (he failed his Athletics check and actually DID get stuck), and the homebrew Panda soldier character convincing the Steward constables to help free his trapped friend; a Ysoki mechanic making not one, but TWO exceptional Stealth rolls while the Strix Biohacker chatted up and Bluffed the hell out of another constable, so the Ysoki could then make, again, not one but TWO great checks (ENG and COMP) to crack the door to the office and then the computer.

Oh, and then, cuz the Operative's first attempt to open the door failed, and a silent alarm was tripped, he and K.B. pretended (semi-successfully) to be "in the throes of passion" when more Constables burst through the door to check on the office security breach.

Oh yeah, and this was all after a series of montage-like debriefings and hypnosis sessions with the Dr. R.N. During which the operative nearly shat himself. And after which the paranoid Strix then put everyone through a "deprogramming" sensory overload with the help of the Mechanic (flashing lights, freezing cold, and shocking smells).

Not a single attack roll this session.

I have been running this AP since late March, all remotely through Discord/Roll20 due to social distancing. It takes a bit of prep each week, but I think it's worth it.

If the initial setup and key end reveal of Book 1 and the initial bad guy reveal of Book 2 are planned for and carefully executed, it really draws the players in and blows their minds. I tried to memorize the who/what/why of the Chimera crew and guests, to have more natural interactions, and I allowed a little melodrama to occur too, some cheesy overacting and such.

Now, they still haven't figured out, or at least openly suggested, the big truth of their existence yet, so that's still a juicy reveal waiting to happen.

We just finished Book 2. The party seems to be really intent on figuring out how they ended up in the situation in the first place, and are on edge regarding any new NPC they meet. Its great.